Hi All,

I'm new here. I just bought an '87 Samurai last week because it has 22K miles on it.  It was sitting in an old man's towing storage yard for many years so I almost believe the miles, but does anybody have any clues I could use to help verify if this mileage is correct?  The old guy said he has cars that have been in there for 50 years! 

The pedals have no wear and in the engine compartment there are some blue plastic pieces that might be wire connectors.  The top half of these are coated with dust, but on the bottom half they are almost new looking.  Everything seems to point that this old guy was telling the truth.  I bought it for $2500. 
The mileage seems too good to be true. 

I'm wondering why a low milage unit would be parked for years at a wrecking yard. If it had 22k, It would probably drive super quiet, and have little to no corrosion on the exhaust since you are in California. 122k miles would have caused at least some corrosion on the exhaust. Also, unless they were changed, I would think the distributor o-rings would be leaking and maybe the oi lpan and valve cover gaskets. Front seals too.l If the timing belt had been replaced a time or two with 122k miles, they may have tweaked the gasket there too. I would say that if it was 22k miles original, that engine would have to be spotless. And then maybe have a compression test to see how tight it is.

Man, I just don't know. I'm skeptical. You got me on this one. How much did you pay. Is it a tin top, or soft top. May post some pictures.

-Adam

It wasn't parked at a wrecking yard but a towing storage yard.  This old guy likes to hold onto things hence the cars he had in there for 50 years. I wonder how many miles those have on them...

There's no oil leakage and when looking around I took some pics. I'm even more convinced now that these are original. 

I took a picture of the air conditioning pulley because its a good example of how the top half is super dusty and rusty and the bottom half still has paint on it.  The inside fenders don't get too rusty here but they do get dirty.  These ones are cleeeeeeean.

Here's some pics:

How much wear is on the steering wheel ? are all of the bumps still on it? how do your window cranks feel?

Check the rubber on the pedals for wear, look at the keys, are they worn? Driver's seat? Floor carpets,.

Looks to me to have 122,000 versus 22,000. mine had 124,000 on it when I got it, and the pedals and undercarriage looked like that.

Here is a good one for Ack's FAQ. Research and see what tires cams stock on that year Sami. (Ack may have this info on his FAQ). See if they match your tires. in 22K of road use your stock tires should ne 2/3 tp 3/4 gone (looks about right for the picture). Now see if you have a brand/model match.

Zig

Man, you guys think of everything!

This has all the makings of some weird C.S.I. car detective story.

-Adam

There are several online services that for about $20 to $25 will trace the registration of the car.  The mileage is reported for each time it is registered.  I would do it just for the satisfaction.  You might have a rare jewel.

The grain is still on the steering wheel, but it is a little worn.  Does anybody with around 120K still have grain on their steering wheel?

The window cranks work, but they're stiff. Mostly because the fuzzy window guides are falling apart and they're making the window stick. The guides look nice, but once you touch them they fall apart. 

The floor carpets are still fluffy, they're not matted down where the feet would go.  I dont have the stock keys to check their wear.

The car has 5 matching tires, with some wear: Bridgestone SF-405.  I think that might be a good clue. If somebody still had the original spare and it was like mine it might be some good evidence.  Anybody with the original spare?  I searched Google and found something in spanish that sounded like these tires came with the new Samurai. But nothing in English. Does anybody know portuguese?
"Ae Povo.. tenho 3 pneus Bridgestone SF-405 Steel ( original de fabrica dos SAMURAIs) medida 205/70-15.sendo : 01 ZERO KM nunca rodou! " 

I asked the DMV lady and she said they don't keep track of the mileage with vehicles so old.  She looked for me but didn't find anything.

Thanks for all the good ideas guys.

my silver sammie has about 30k on it, it was towed behind a motor home so it did alot of around town driving and there for my steering wheel has a little more wear and tear on it,I think mine had the bridgstone spare on the back when I got it but was cracked from the weather so I tossed it out in the yard some place with the others,they had put on 235's with chrome wheels but my 88 came with a fiber glass hard top and air also but is not a jx model,I pulled the x-fer case out to put gears in it and the gears that came out did not even have any break in marks on them, I still have them, mine looks a little cleaner underneath it ,  it has been on blocks in the garage for three years or more I think the last time I drove it was 2002, not sure why I guess I'm collecting them,LOL

I thought I would resurrect the post to tell you guys what I discovered since posting it originally. 
The tires were made in a year ending in 6.  So I suspect they were made in '86 since this is an '87 model.  I put 4 new tires on and kept one old tire as a spare. It blew up one hot summer day, its very old, much older than '96. 

-The spark plug wires say "1986 Sumitomo" on them. The distributor and rotor don't look too worn. I would think old wires with 122,000 miles on them wouldnt work too good anymore and mess up the rotor and distributor.  But somebody could have replaced the rotor and dist.
-The timing belt is a Suzuki brand belt and the writing is barely visible on it.   The cam sprocket has a little wear on the teeth and some dust accumulated around where the belt goes, but not much.  I would think a 122,000 mile car would have more dust accumulated and the writing on the timing belt would be all rubbed off.  I've seen other cam sprockets and seem to remember them as having more wear on the teeth. They had over 100K miles on them.
-I had the front axles out while installing new spindle seals. I took them to an axle rebuilder to see how to get them apart so I could clean all the old grease out and he said they look brand new.  (you cant take them apart by the way, I used a lot of gasoline and compressed air to clean out the old CV joint grease). 
-The old brown canvas top was Suzuki brand.  I think it was the original top.  The windows were all yellow and you couldnt see through them.  I dont think a top would last 122K miles without tattering.  This one had no tatters but it was very hard and brittle.

My strongest clues that these are original miles are the old tires, the old plug wires, and the old canvas top.  And the fact that I have all three together combine forces to persuade me that this bad boy is low mileage.  Now I don't want to drive it.  It would be kind of like killing a unicorn... just kidding.  I cant wait to finish maintenance and take it to the mountains!

The mileage is N/A.
It sat for so long you'll need to go through the brakes, replace seals & gaskets, test compression, go through the front knuckles, check the joints, replace all filters & fluids, flush the gas tank, and more.

Then it'll be like it has 22 miles.

Nice score on finding a 22K SJ. 

Keep all the original parts for car shows. 

You should be able to get the year of the tire off of it. It's a code on there somewhere. I'm sure a few clever Google searches should dig up how to read the code. You should do this every time you go and buy tires (some tires have been sitting around a while), but... I'm just too darn lazy for all that.